E T Mensah in hot waters

…His constituents accuse him of neglect The Chiefs and people of four communities in the Ningo-Prampram constituency have accused the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Mr. E.T. Mensah of taking advantage of the high rate of illiteracy in the area to deny them basic social amenities.

According to the chiefs and people of the four villages, namely Ayetepa, Kpongunor, Lochubuer and Mangotsonya, instead of providing the communities with potable drinking water, good roads and other amenities, which they have been asking for the past 15 years, the MP has only been providing them with footballs, jerseys and other materials.

The people have also accused the MP of using money to influence the electorate during electioneering campaign periods and when they have voted for him, he turns his back against them.

Speaking at a press conference organized by Ayetepa Youth and Old Association (AYOSA) at Ayetepa last Friday, Nene Kwatey Onuma Kpa III Chief of Mangotsonya, pointed out that ET has no interest in extending development projects to the area, but instead all he is interested in is to use them to achieve his political gains.

He explained that after voting for the Hon. MP to retain power in the 2004 elections where he promised to provide them with potable drinking water, E.T. Mensah has turned his back on them and depriving them of their right to good water.

Nene Onuma Kpa III disclosed that over the past 15 years the biggest problem facing them as a people in the four communities is lack of potable drinking water, which has compelled them to create hand dug wells or what they call dams as sources of drinking water.

He stated that they have three of such dams but due to the poor rainfall patterns of the area, two of the them have dried up leaving the community with only one located about two kilometers away from the area which they share with cattle, sheep, and other animals.

This has, as a result, according to him, brought on to the community diseases such as Guinea worm, Bilharzias and other related water borne diseases leading to the depletion of the human resource base required to develop the area.

The chief further explained that the people in the area have written several letters as well as held meetings with the influential MP with the hope of finding a solution to the problem, but to no avail.

He further disclosed that they have also petitioned the previous government on a number of occasions to come to their aid as the rate at which the water borne diseases are adversely affecting them is very much alarming, but to no avail.

He announced that pupils and students in the communities have to wake-up at dawn to trek to the dam site each morning to fetch water before going to school.

He explained that as a result of the long trek in search of water each morning, tiredness take the better side of the children, which cause them to sleep during classes periods adding this has adversely affected the performance of the children in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in recent times.

He has therefore appealed to President J A Kufuor and the NPP government to come to the aid of the people by providing them with potable drinking water to ensure that the people in the area do not continue to suffer from the water borne diseases.

The chief also thanked the NPP government for starting the construction of the road network in the area and appealed to it to endeavour to award the contract to competent people who can provide quality work for them because according to him, the work being done presently is of low quality.

The chief further called on companies, organizations, philanthropists and NGOs to also support the efforts of the government in trying to help develop their area for them to make it a better place to live.